RIGHTS OF PUBLICITY

Also known as image rights, the right of publicity is the right to control the commercial exploitation of a person’s name, likeness or persona. It is an intellectual property right that prevents the use of a person’s name, likeness, or other indicia of personal identity such as; nickname, pseudonym, voice, signature, likeness, or photograph, for commercial benefit.
This legal concept exists to protect celebrities and generally people who have cultivated a brand with their personalities.
For instance, using an online persona with a large following as the brand ambassador for your product can influence sales positively. Now such usage without the prior explicit consent of such persona will result in a breach of right of publicity.
There are no specific laws governing image rights in Nigeria.
However, there are some legal instruments that provide a foundational basis for the recognition of image rights. They include;
- S.37 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which provides for right to privacy. This is the fountain from which image rights flows from. It establishes and guarantees the protection of all Nigerian’s right to privacy in relation to their homes, correspondence, telephone conversations and telegraphic communications.
Thus, all Nigerian citizens have the right to determine the extent and nature of personal information divulged to the public on any platform.
- Data Protection Act 2023: the Act applies to the processing of personal data whether by automated means or not. It concretizes the rights of a data user(you and I) and the liabilities of data controllers(social media developers). It also emphasizes the necessity and paramount nature of a data user’s consent. Thus, exploitative use of the likenesses or images of notable personalities without their consent is illegal and punishable by law.
These legal inventions amongst many others have been created to protect image rights in Nigeria. Now more than ever, their work seems to be cut out for them due to the emergence of AI.
Musician’s voices are being replicated by AI powered apps and deep fakes of celebrities are being used to market products and even content on social media platforms, hence recognition of one’s rights is very necessary in this digital era.